Canada’s History in Highlights

Montessori students in Coquitlam, British Columbia are presenting Canada’s history in a five-minute video! Can they do it?

Written by Gina McMurchy-Barber 2004 recipient of the Governor General's Award for Excellence in Teaching Canadian History

—
May 2, 2017

Students from Children of Integrity Montessori Academy perform the story of the Christmas Truce of the First World War

Children of Integrity Montessori Academy

Boiling down Canada’s history into a five-minute video post is near impossible, but if the Barenaked Ladies can reduce millions of years of evolution and world history down to a 30-second introduction for the television show The Big Bang Theory, then we’re going to give it a try.

For our commemoration of Canada’s 150th my upper elementary Montessori students in Coquitlam, British Columbia are researching one or two key figures or events in our country’s history. Then they’ll work to find a pivotal moment or quote they can use that will sum up the event. The next steps are to script or stage the moments, find props and costumes, and suitable settings around the school or community where we can film the scenes. We’ll string them together into a short video, along with our very own “Happy Birthday, Canada” song.

Canada’s History in Highlights will include such historic figures as: Jacque Cartier, Tecumseh, Louis Riel, and Nellie McClung. And move on up to more recent figures such Maurice Richard, Terry Fox, Roberta Bonder and Lt. General Romeo Dallaire. We’ll squeeze in scenes of events like the Halifax Explosion, and the Barkerville Gold Rush.

By no means can we include it all…. but what we will do is show a vast array of people, places and events that sum up, in-short, the Canada we know and love today. We hope to post our video on our school website and on YouTube by July 1, 2017.